In recent years, biodegradable polymeric materials have found increased use in a wide range of biomedical engineering applications such as tissue engineering, drug delivery, wound dressing, diagnostic imaging, and medical device applications. However, microbial proliferation, including bacterial and fungal infection, has presented major complications for the use of many previous biodegradable polymers in biomedical applications. Serious complications can include tissue destruction, premature device failure, and/or the spread of an infection from one area of a patient's body to other areas of the body. In addition, the proliferation of microorganisms can stimulate a cascade of defensive responses from the body that can themselves be life-threatening. Bacterial infection and/or fungal infection are also a major obstacle for wound healing, especially chronic wound healing.
Unfortunately, many previous biodegradable polymers cannot effectively reduce or prevent microbial proliferation, bacterial infection, and/or fungal infection. Therefore, antibiotics, antifungals, or other antimicrobial materials must often be coated onto, encapsulated within, or otherwise associated with such biodegradable polymers to inhibit bacterial and/or fungal growth. Further, such approaches to inhibiting microbial proliferation and infection can sometimes have limited effectiveness and/or result in a degradation of medical device performance. Moreover, antibiotic and antifungal properties are rarely found in the same composition. Improved antimicrobial polymers or oligomers and methods of reducing microbial proliferation are therefore desired.